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They even brought back the shop experience, though now it seems to be based around all shops...as far as I can tell. Meaning leveling up the weapons shop levels up ALL weapon shops, hopefully. Also, you can use healing artes outside of battles again (thank god).

"Yes, because apparently blindly jumping headfirst into a firefight without a grasp on the situation or any combat experience is a sign of genius these days."

Downloading the digital version now. Alittle annoyed that there was no preorder on the NA psn store despite other countries having the option. So i had to pay near full price ($54.99) with no bonus content added. Wish my ps3 disk drive didn't crap out on me. >_<

Oh well. Hopefully i'll enjoy the game itself.

"To die without leaving a corpse....that is the way of the Garo"
PSN id: Ryumoau

I'm definitely playing this, but I'll be joining late; amazon.com's delivery estimate is the 14th -> 20th. Being Canadian, you'd think I'd use amazon.ca, but they ship via UPS, and I grew tired of finding footprints on my packages. An extra week doesn't make much difference; I'd never be able to keep up with DarkRPGMaster anyway.

I too am glad that Xillia tends towards Graces-f type combat, and I'm hoping for an Abyss or Vesperia-class storyline.

Only the livin' have the privilege of sayin' they'll fight ta the last breath.
And words like conviction and resolve don't mean much to a dead man...

Backstepping is important because if you time it right, each character will pull off a different moves that's advantageous for you. For example, if you backstep perfectly as Jude, you'll disappear and reappear directly behind your opponent. Critical attacks are easy to pull off behind the enemy, so this is good. They have an action gauge that goes down with each backstep and attack, and the second it hits zero it waits a half a second to a second to instantly recharge. However, you cannot dodge around an enemy through the usual guard thing, so you have to use free run again, which luckily does not use any of the gauge. You can also jump once again for this Tales, meaning aerial combat is possible once again, as is jumping over spells and attacks. Grade is now obtained from getting titles (which do nothing outside of that), so you can go to a higher difficulty and not hold back (and the higher difficulties are not that hard if you're skilled).

Linking characters allows characters to combo very efficiently and combine artes if they both have a move that will work together (the game itself tells you in battle in the artes menu), and some of them are downright deadly. The Overlimit now is exclusive for the Link attacks, so you're going to have to use them (though each character has their own link ability, so it's not too bad). TP is back once again, so there's a limit to the spam (it also takes a part of the action gauge). Luckily attacking gets you 1 TP back once again, so that's good, as is the fact that linked characters, when using a regular arte followed by normal attacks, will both gain TP back instead of just the one person. Taunting also gives back TP now.

And that's all I can say for the battles as of right now.

"Yes, because apparently blindly jumping headfirst into a firefight without a grasp on the situation or any combat experience is a sign of genius these days."

I haven't received the game yet, just wondering does it have difficulty options(and able to change mid-game) again? Every now and then I play co-op and my partner isn't very skilled at these kinds of games so I'd generally lower the difficulty when we're both playing.

Is it just me or does anyone else notice a strange lisp when Milla talks? It doesn't bother me too much personally but i could imagine it annoying alot of other gamers. I'm only an hour or two in the game, so maybe there might be a story reason for this. It seems kinda weird they would let that slide for the voice acting of one of the main characters in the game though.

Loving the battle system, Milla Maxwell as a heroine, and the GP node board thing. I'm a big fan of sphere grid upgrades in any rpg.

"To die without leaving a corpse....that is the way of the Garo"
PSN id: Ryumoau

It is beyond indescribable how much I want mine to arrive. It was supposed to be yesterday but got bumped to Thursday. SO bummed about that, especially reading this thread. Can't wait!

"Back when FF9 was coming out. People were rejoicing because it was actually a fantasy game and not a sci-fi game like 7 and 8. It's hilarious in modern context, with everyone wanking themselves to dehydration at the thought of a FF7 remake."

My Collector's Edition was near Lille in France this morning, which should put it on schedule to arrive on the release date here Friday. I've taken the day off work (mostly due to various appointments in the morning and figuring I'd just take the entire day) so would be awesome for it to make an afternoon and evening of new Tales

Hmm. You know, it occurs to me that I've never played a Tales game, in all the time I've played JRPGs (SNES/PS1/PS2/PS3). Guess I should go see if Gamestop has a cheap copy of something (Graces F?) to give it a try.

Hmm. You know, it occurs to me that I've never played a Tales game, in all the time I've played JRPGs (SNES/PS1/PS2/PS3). Guess I should go see if Gamestop has a cheap copy of something (Graces F?) to give it a try.

As long as you understand that Graces F has excellent combat but some serious plot and characterization issues. I mean, plot isn't the strong point of the Tales series anyway, but this one is particularly bad. Characters are usually better--there are some good characters in Graces F, but most of the casts in other Tales games are stronger. I'd suggest Vesperia instead if you have an Xbox, or perhaps just wait until Xillia goes down in price.

As for Xillia, just started a playthrough with my husband. We might not even have to fight over who to control this time! I love controlling Milla, but Alvin looks like fun, too. Better than our playthrough of Symphonia that had me yelling, "NO SHEENA IS MINE" the entire time.

Xillia combat is certainly very good , but just makes me miss Graces F's great system. Graces F felt like a giant leap forward and this feels like they've reverted to moving things forward by baby steps. At least the baby steps in this one are quite fantastic.

I loved Graces' combat, but I can't say I ever mastered it. It's actually a bit of a relief to be back to the regular kind of Tales combat that I understand well, though I was a lot better at playing defensively in Graces than I am with normal Tales combat. I'm happy that the special attacks are mechanically simple to pull off in Xillia. Watch the meter, do a specific Arte, press R2. Bam. I never liked having to contort my fingers or have flawless timing to pull off specials in several of the previous Tales games.

Yeah the combat is great in both Graces and Xillia. Now i'm worried about going back to Symphonia next year. It was my first Tales game and i think back on it fondly. But it was almost a decade ago since i played it and i'm afraid that combat system will feel really dated now.

"To die without leaving a corpse....that is the way of the Garo"
PSN id: Ryumoau

Yeah the combat is great in both Graces and Xillia. Now i'm worried about going back to Symphonia next year. It was my first Tales game and i think back on it fondly. But it was almost a decade ago since i played it and i'm afraid that combat system will feel really dated now.

Better then Abyss's FOF which could be utterly random

28 years of gaming and still going strong
and now a mostly annoyed Father with first son. And now a father again to a second son

I loved Graces' combat, but I can't say I ever mastered it. It's actually a bit of a relief to be back to the regular kind of Tales combat that I understand well, though I was a lot better at playing defensively in Graces than I am with normal Tales combat. I'm happy that the special attacks are mechanically simple to pull off in Xillia. Watch the meter, do a specific Arte, press R2. Bam. I never liked having to contort my fingers or have flawless timing to pull off specials in several of the previous Tales games.

I can understand that, but Graces' did a lot of things to advance the series combat (no TP, side stepping etc.) that I really think they need to work into the main formula.

Ended up getting Xillia - used copies of Graces f weren't that much cheaper. /shrug

Not really getting a hang of the combat system yet.... terrible at blocking, nearly every time I try to use an Art I get attacked & knocked down, so it's mostly just mashing X. Hrm. I miss FF6~10 style menu-driven combat. Sigh.

So why look at Tales at all? Its been an action based series since it start on the SNES. Its not like this is a recent development, the Tales series did this well before things started to move towards more action RPGs.

Ended up getting Xillia - used copies of Graces f weren't that much cheaper. /shrug

Not really getting a hang of the combat system yet.... terrible at blocking, nearly every time I try to use an Art I get attacked & knocked down, so it's mostly just mashing X. Hrm. I miss FF6~10 style menu-driven combat. Sigh.

You'll start getting the artes into the attacks soon enough. General rule of thumb is to do several X attacks followed by an arte in order to guarantee it won't be interrupted (depending on the arte, as some require a bit of a charge-up).

"Yes, because apparently blindly jumping headfirst into a firefight without a grasp on the situation or any combat experience is a sign of genius these days."

Picked this game up and loving it! I have been trying to get adjusted to the difference in battle mechanics as well. I keep trying to sidestep. lol

Ah well. I have been playing this with my gf. She plays as Millie pretty religiously. I have found Alvin to be pretty fun myself.

Overall I think we are both enjoying the game. There are some plot devices thrown at you that are either way too obvious to ignore or just so blatant they have to be trying to confuse you. Ah well.

I figure after we beat the game I will go solo and play Jude's story myself. I think this game is meant for one player the way the link system is designed. not saying multiple people can't play together, but I have noticed that if my gf tried to link with Alvin while I was controlling him, the CPU takes over for me. Guess that can't be helped.

So why look at Tales at all? Its been an action based series since it start on the SNES.

Because it's a loooooong running series that everyone seems to be gushing over, and I've never played one of them. Seems like a general lack of experience for someone who plays JRPGs.

(kind of like the way I've never played a Zelda game, either. Of course, I've never personally owned any Nintendo system, so that makes it a bit harder to fix. Heh.)

edit: I've played a number of action-combat JRPGs - like Star Ocean, Kingdom Hearts, Secret of Mana - so it's not that I completely avoid the style. It's just that "action" seems to be more and more common over the years, even in the case of the more recent Final Fantasies (12+). /shrug